World leaders met at the United Nations (UN) in New York on September 25, where they adopted a new agenda for sustainable development.
This agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will guide development policies and funding over the next 15 years. These are based on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were adopted in 2000 with the intention of their being achieved this year. The MDGs sought to bring an end to the indignity of poverty through quantitative goals related to reducing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and improving access to water and sanitation. While great progress has been made, the MDGs have not been fully achieved, so the SDGs seek to strengthen efforts to eradicate poverty through improvements to food, health, education, sanitation, infrastructure, energy, gender equality, growth, social and environmental sustainability, innovation, etc. It should also be mentioned that goal 17 emphasizes the role of international cooperation in achieving these objectives.
Figure 1. Sustainable Development Goals
Source: UNDP.
